Land Fishing

So here's the conundrum: you like to eat seafood but you don't fish...Well obviously you find a restaurant and order a fried fish sandwich, or if you are feeling less inclined to the starches you order a grilled fish on a caesar  salad and then you thank me for reminding you of two of the best local dishes you can find in the Lower Keys. Let's face it, there are tons of excellent eateries and dozens of styles and ethnicities of foods cooked for us but Key West is a former commercial seaport. So we want fish, it stands to reason, especially if you live here. 

My wife loves Fishbusterz so I love Fishbusterz, especially as I know we are getting seafood after she makes Fishbusterz noises. Key West Old Town residents have an excellent seafood place on Eaton Street which also offers seating with cooked seafood for consumption on premises. I have heard only good things about them but as I live (and my wife cooks) outside Key West we gravitate to the shops that involve less traffic and parking issues than those downtown. Having said that I feel an urge coming on to explore an Eaton Street fish sandwich...

Fishbusterz offers the proper range of local seafood as you might expect. However their history is quite interesting as they were started as a business to support local boats and offer a market for local fishing. Checking a  story I did on this place in 2008 you can see they have evolved over the past decade. 

They started out selling cooked food while highlighting their intimate connection to the fishing fleet. It was at a time when the commercial fishing docks on Stock Island were under threat of development and Fishbusterz stepped in to keep the fleet  from disintegrating. As it was commercial boats had retreated to the Stock Island docks from Key West Bight, pushed out by massive development.

 And so you can still find locally caught seafood  for sale...locally.

 And if you fancy a conch feast you can buy five pounds of the stuff right here. I am not a huge fan of conch or abalone (on the west coast) as I feel it's one of those foods that gets its flavor from the breading or the lemon juice or whatever coking agent is used. However I am almost alone in that, and this stuff is massively popular.

 Limes and lemons are for sale too, essential accouterments for fruits of the sea.

 And let us not forget suaces and spices from the Key West Spice Company.

 Clothing of one sort or...

 ...another.

 Yes and we should all love Stock Island, shouldn't we?

Fishbusterz is on the main drag from Highway One which starts out at the traffic light where the street is called Macdonald and then the road evolves into Maloney -don't ask, it just does- and on the right just past West Marine the low blue building will appear will all its fishy goodness. 

Safe Harbor, Stock Island.

Schooner Wharf Bar on Key West's waterfront like to claim the title of the last little piece of old Key West, but it seems to me, this piece of waterfront could more properly lay claim to representing the way Key West used to be. It's called Safe Harbor and it is a body of water that consists of commercial wharves, docks and industrial activity the like of which Key West hasn't seen in decades.

This is a boating community, and there is commercial activity here but that doesn't mean people don't live here as well, and. And some earn a living or practice a craft on land here among all these boats.

There is a fascination with boats and the water that transcends usefulness. People find the waterfront to be endlessly fascinating and perhaps soothing. As a former sailor, with Asperger's, I find he constant rattling of rigging on hollow aluminum tubes maddening. I used to prowl my deck obsessively during high winds attempting to tie off any errant halyard to stop the end,es banging. Sometimes I'd bungee my neighbors' lines as well such was the racket.

Hogfish restaurant is a popular eatery tucked away among te boats. This is in fact the main reason boatless people come to Safe Harbor.

 

At little piece of old Key West? Maybe. The fish and chips aren't bad but the beer selection is weak of you lie interesting craft beers. But the atmosphere makes up,for that I'm sure. It must, this place is popular.

This is downtown Safe Harbor whose location is accurately mapped on the post out front.

If you can tear yourself away from the fish fillets and Bud "Lite" there is a graveled alleyway jutting out into the water from behind Hogfish. Cheyenne loves to explore it.

She ignored the killer cat out for a walk. I was advised she has a vicious temper but saw no sign of it.

Artists in all media hang out here in these useful little warehouse compartments, building whatever comes to mind.

I could never own a custom painted motorcycle like this. I put too much wear and tear on my Bonneville to spend the time or money doing this to it:

Everywhere you look around here there is something to see, be it ever so inexplicable.

 

This guy is preparing to head north to Pensacola but he wasn't keen to get his picture taken as his oat wasn't shipshape. Not the point I told him. Peoplewantto see you living the dream. Am I right?

Pleasure boats mix it up with their traditional antagonists here, the commercial boats. Professionals for some reason dislike amateurs as though a human who boats for fun is beneath contempt. I don't know why but some sort of machismo is probably at the base of the antagonism.

And back on this side of the channel the ultimate in pleasure craft, a wooden river boat type of machine gets the refurbishment it deserves. It put me in mind of the movie Fitzcarraldo.

I took this picture with the caption in mind, considering the feeble state of my two banana trees at this early stage in their lives: banana envy. Very Freudian I'm sure.

Cheyenne causes me envy sometimes when women just walk up to her and start petting her. I can look as baleful as you like and I never get the attention she does.

Cute but pointless signage.

Cute and potentially useful signage.

They build stuff, like I said earlier, in these warehouse units, woodworkers included.

I wandered over to Fishbusterz fish market later but the dockside restaurant that I quite liked is no more.

At the beginning of this essay I mentioned the soothing effect of open water views.

According to the literature the basin was carved out of the water in the 1950s at a time when shrimp boats were based in Key West Bight in Key West. Land prices started to go up in the eighties and the Shrimp boats moved and found a new home here.

Across the water the power plant operated by Keys Energy, the local public utility, sits and waits for a massive power outage. They have a couple of huge diesel generators there and I'm told they can run electrical needs for the lower Keys at eighty percent capacity for two weeks on the fuel stored at Stock Island. It's the sort of emergency back up they could use in New Jersey right now.

On land there is a whole world of activity, less dramatic than the power station and it's preparation for disaster.

Don't get used to all this rustic beauty because development plans are in the works to build a luxury upscale boating facility just across the harbor. Imagine how contained that sort of gentrification will be as the years move forward. This sort of cheap rustic old style living will not be tolerated for long. Money talks remember...There are also moves afoot to try to incorporate Stock Island into the city of Key West, presumably to benefit the wealthy, not the restaurant workers and handy people who live in the trailers on Stock Island. I guess we should enjoy. His while we can and hope for the best.

Walking Cheyenne Is always a delight and around here because there is much to see and smell. I'm not sure lobster traps smell as I would like stuff to smell but she is a dog.

It's hard work and it takes it out of a dog. Who then needs to take a sort of swim.

This is a close up picture at the end of Stock Island's Front Street which stops short at the power plant. Very impressive it is too.

One more fine mural to admire. Murals are a popular form of expression in the Lower Keys.

 

 

The last little piece of Old Key West? You decide.

 

Posted with Blogsy

July TwentyFifth #3

Fishbusterz by GarytheTourist. A commercial fishing dock, ice house and restaurant. I liked it a lot when it was new and raw, but gentrification has included loud music and cutsy decoration. Sitting out is still nice and the fish is obviously fresh.

Lobster Fest

So why are Officers Lariz and Smith looking so pleased? It could be because they are making some extra money working the Lobsterfest detail on Duval Street this past Saturday. Or it could be because they wanted their mugshots on Key West Diary.They were feeling the heat standing in front of the Bull at Caroline Street, while some of the lobsters at the street fair were, temporarily doing quite well in a tank of seawater on a very hot August afternoon with temperatures hitting 100 degrees (38C):
The fate of the lobsters is an unhappy one at Lobsterfest, as they destined for a paper plate, boiled or grilled but either way they aren't scheduled to survive the day:It's quite the scene on Duval Street with shade tents set up on the west side of the street for five blocks, and each place offers Florida lobster provided, according to the Citizen newspaper by my favorite fish place, Fishbusterz on Stock Island.

Traditionally Key West is starting to go dead in August, as American kids are planning their return to school, and Europeans are the mainstay of tourism until September arrives and the town dies down completely. This year Key West is working harder than ever to attract visitors with lower room rates and well organized events. It seems to be working. At this street fair, lobster was on the menu but Arts and Crafts were in a close second place: Lobster mini season saw several amateur divers lose their lives hunting for lobster. Now the commercial season has kicked in and fishermen are sounding gloomy about their prospects. A year ago Florida lobster sold for $7 a pound, the rate this year is around $3 according to the Citizen newspaper.and the fishermen say they need more than $4 a pound to make any kind of money at all. Nevertheless the lobster exact their revenge. This incautious cook dunked his hand in boiling water with predictable results:
The popularity of this event is amazing to me, who doesn't much relish lobster. I caused some annoyance once by describing lobster meat as string cheese with a fish flavor. So I eat it with relish when it is offered to me as a treat... but I'm not like these folk crowded on Charles Street enjoying their meals in the open air under the benign eye of Officer Carson:

Not tempted by the nature of the food I strolled around taking pictures and watching the hustling crowds. It was good to see Key West acting busy:

It would be remiss of me not to note the stands devoted to good works, which show up in the midst of the acres of commerce:

But the real deal here is eating the crustacean of course, and not necessarily while sitting down: Me? I prefer to sit and eat as God intended, round the campfire tearing the meat off the bone with bare hands. Or failing that, plastic cutlery:Florida lobster aren't like the more familiar Maine type that have the big claws. These things look like over sized crawfish and they are pretty much defenseless. They hole up under rocks and are usually spotted when their antennae can be seen sticking out of the hole. Then the intrepid diver goes in with a stick and wiggles them out. Left unmolested they can live to be 120 years old.

City Commissioner Mark Rossi owns Rick's bar and he was out in the street waving his tongs around and i think it was probably more fun doing that than deep frying conch fritters in this heat:And at some point even the most avid lobster eater has enough and needs to sit back and reflect on what went before:Good friends, good eats:And here we have a group of future leaders of America getting ready to chow down:
For me it was time to get to the salt mines and spend a night keeping Key West safe; Officer Smith was still there, still chatting cheerfully with the visitors, keeping things cheerful at Lobsterfest:I can't help but think I probably should have tried a grilled lobster kebab, at least one, with some melted butter and an ice cold soda. I'm such a puritan.